ECSG updates from the frontline: February 2022

Prospect’s full-time officers for the Education and Children’s Services Group give their updates from the last few months.

• Daniel Maney – Wales
• Stuart Anderson – Scotland, North and Midlands
• Claire Dent – London, South East, South West and South
• Angela Moffatt – Northern Ireland

Daniel Maney – Wales

On the 20 January,  Prospect and other unions met with the Jeremy Miles AS/MS, the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language, to discuss the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill and related legislation, in particular the Welsh Government’s commitment to the introduction of the new Tertiary Education and Research Commission in Wales.

This will result in the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) being subsumed into the new commission and also a number of staff from Welsh Government. This new independent body is due to be set up by 2023 and we will continue to engage actively with Welsh Government on this project.

We are currently taking a proactive approach and are communicating with all our education members directly to inform them of what Prospect is currently doing in Wales and seeking input from members as to how they want to engage with us going forward.

Stuart Anderson – Scotland, North and Midlands

My experience is that the period since the GEC met in November has been quiet in respect of both collective and individual issues raise by ECS members. I have noted some authority wide activity below.

I would say that in the first part of 2022 my interactions with individual members have continued to be driven by workload issues and while there is often a reluctance to tackle these issues, members are having to deal with challenging expectations.

As noted in my last report there has continued to be issues around elective home education, in particular the resourcing in some local authorities.  I have also had appreciative comments about the groups’ work responding to consultations and would like to pass them on here.

Derbyshire County Council

Derbyshire continue with their review of leadership posts in their children and young people department. Phase one included the appointment of an assistant director that will now take phase two forward.  The restructuring of six service leads into four is likely to be the most significant part of the proposal, though we are yet to see formal phase two documents.

Blackpool City Council

Blackpool have entered a budget consultation process with trade unions as per their annual cycle. As there are changes to the national school improvement funding model, this may be reflected in local budgets as the process continues.

Bradford Metropolitan District Council

Bradford is currently restructuring the Educational Psychology team. While we do not have any members directly affected this is likely to have an impact on our members’ way of working.

Claire Dent – London, South East, South West and South

There is no doubt that the changes to the Early Years Funding Formula and removing the Schools Improvement Monitoring and Brokering Grant will impact across all Local Authorities and subsequently Prospect membership but as yet I haven’t received any notification of restructures resulting from this.

Dorset

Staff are beginning to return to offices where ventilation is treated as a priority. Risk assessments are being carried out for staff who are vulnerable and there hasn’t been any concerns raised around these arrangements.

Worryingly though mental health issues accounts for 40% of absences here in Children’s Services. This is being addressed across the whole of the LA with a Wellbeing Working Group working on a two year action plan, which includes workshops and a Take Care Tuesday for dedicated wellbeing time. Obviously mental health issues have increased across the whole country but it is reassuring that Dorset are doing something positive to address this for their staff.

Oxfordshire

Their Gender Pay Gap reports that overall the mean hourly rate men earn is on average 31p per hour more than women, a difference of 1.8%. This is considerably less than the public sector national average of 15.8% and well below some other Councils I cover.

Two-thirds of the workforce are women and a higher proportion of women work in the lower paid roles with no clear career progression pathways. To address this the council are progressing plans for staff to undertake apprenticeships whilst they are employed, a positive step to address the pay inequality.

Hertfordshire

Positive changes to the terms and conditions for Soulbury staff have now been accepted. I balloted the membership but receive no responses, a sure sign that all our membership were happy with the offer which included paying sick pay from the first day of absence, long-term sick pay being increased to 6 months full pay and redundancy pay to be increased from the statutory rate to £660 per week.

Personal Cases

I only have two current cases; both revolve around the issue of making reasonable adjustments for staff returning to work with Long Covid. As this is a new condition it can be misunderstood by employers and the right support is withheld. However, it is likely that it meets the criteria under the Equality Act so due consideration must be shown when considering sanctions for prolonged or re-occurring absence.

Angela Moffatt – Northern Ireland

Glenn Walsh, EA representative has been attending meeting of the Directorate Joint Forums, as well as Sector executive meetings within Prospect.

I also went with Glenn to meet with Baker Tilly Mooney Moore, the consultants leading the EA Landscape Review, to input member experience and views which have been fed back to us over a lengthy period.  This was an important and constructive meeting, which enabled us to raise significant issues and potentially influence how the organisation moves forward.  We will feedback to you, as we are updated on progress of this review.

We’ve had a small rise in recruitment over the last few months, and are looking at events for the coming year.  If you have a colleague, please try to encourage them to join Prospect www.prospect.org.uk/join.  If you’re interested in having an event at your location, please let us know and we can plan this in.

We also continue to deal with cases and queries on behalf of members – and we’re conscious a key issue is the time taken to deal with matters, and the way members are dealt with.  We were able to feed some of this experience into the EA Landscape Review – so it is important we know how you are feeling at work, so we can ensure we are continually raising this through the various forums we attend.

We’d encourage feedback from members – please email us via [email protected] or contact Glenn Walsh if you have any issues, or need support.